What is the minimum age requirement and maximum age limit to be on ‘Survivor?’

As Survivor superfans know, the beloved competition series has had castaways from all different walks of life since its premiere in 2001. However, the wide variation in the ages of the contestants season after season has caught the attention of viewers nationwide.

The youngest ever contestant to compete on Survivor was Will Wahl, who was just 18 years old at the time of filming Survivor: Millennials vs Gen X. The oldest contestant to ever compete was Rudy Boesch, who was 72 years old at the time of filming Survivor: Borneo (and 75 years old at the time of filming Survivor: All Stars). That’s a huge range, so fans of the hit competition show have just one burning question: what is the minimum and maximum age limit to be on Survivor?

In an interview with PEOPLE, the producers of the series shared that there is a minimum age requirement of 16 years old to compete on Survivor, however, there’s no maximum age limit:

“Sadly we don’t get enough older people applying to be on Survivor. It takes a lot of courage to take on this adventure, and it’s definitely not easy, but I wish more people over 50 would apply. It’s such a great test to see what you’re capable of achieving.”

Nonetheless, Survivor has still been slammed for its lack of older contestants, especially in more recent years.

Since the very first season of Survivor, there has been a significant decrease in the number of older contestants cast on the series, with users like @RecoveringRagaholic taking to Reddit to criticize some of the casts we have seen within the New Era of Survivor.

“Survivor has become such a young game these days. I remember when people were calling Mike Gabler old on Survivor 43. He was 51 — that’s not old! Where’s the Sonja Christophers, the BB Andersens, the Rudy Boeschs?”

The Reddit user continued to share their perspective with passion:

“I’ve seen Survivor commit to diversity in recent years, which deserves kudos, but we’re not seeing true diversity in terms of older people, or even people with disabilities like we see on The Amazing Race. It would be nice to see a more accurate representation of our society’s demographics, but maybe the game is too hard for older people or the challenges are impossible for people with disabilities.”

To follow this statement, Survivor superfans replied with some thoughts of their own. Needless to say, they did not hold back…

@jerseysbestdancers: “Mark Long is 52 and still doing seasons of The Challenge, keeping up with the youngins. I don’t think being old is necessarily a disqualifier. If Survivor wants to move toward a more physical game, they don’t need to pay so much attention to age, but physical abilities. You could have a horribly out-of-shape 25-year-old against a lady in her 60s who rides ten miles on her peloton every day. Who’s more physical? Age doesn’t necessarily matter, IMO. If you want a physical game, you can’t be casting people bragging about not having gotten off the couch since they graduated high school.”

@GuyWhoWantsHappyLife: “It would be nice to have a more even amount of 20-35 year olds and 40-60 year olds. Poor Brandon Donlon can barely climb a ladder and he’s in his 20s, so age isn’t really the problem”

@ToPimpAButterfree: “If anything, they’ve made the game so much less physical than it was, so they SHOULD be casting a lot more older players.”

We all remember 54-year-old Keith Nale dominating the immunity challenges and the reward challenges on Survivor: Cambodia, right? If that does not prove that age is just a number, we’re not sure what does…

To see castaways (both young and old) try their luck at one million dollars and the title of “Sole Survivor,” Survivor superfans can stream all 45 seasons of the beloved competition series on Paramount Plus now.